De la photographie africaine en tant qu’innovation technique
Abstract
African photography as a technological innovation is described and discussed through the analysis of the work of a studio photographer named Cornelius Azaglo Augustt (1924-2001) who practiced his trade in a small town of Côte d'Ivoire during the second half of the XXth century. Through the outstanding photographic archives he left us, we can follow step by step his professional itinerary and put under scrutiny his daily work. Among other results, their detailed analysis puts in a prominent position the big divide between public use portraits (ID pictures) and private use ones. A distinction which opens the door to a better understanding of the new social practices the studio, as a socio-technical device, gave birth to. In addition, it shows how each of the different technical innovations which were successively introduced has changed the way photography was practiced, perceived and consumed. However, the fact that these images are protected by the law (according to the rights of the third parties) constitutes a serious constraint put on the scientific study of this kind of visual material.
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